Top 10 finish cannot secure a trip to Nationals?

You must be Cal Davis. I saw Pellicoro squeaked in with an at large. Oregon st not making it meant Mitchell and fetherstonaugh took 2 spots right away.

If it's any solace, another thread pointed out that a surprisingly low amount of ind qualifiers end up all American and recommended reducing number of qualifiers.🥴

Really stupid argument. Less teams and more individuals is absurd.

I'm friends with one current and one former pro runner(s) who never made it to Nationals in NCAA track or cross-country. Both of them made it to the Olympic Trials.

If they were so good they would’ve been in the top 4 individuals. Someone has to be the first one out. This isn’t the first time or last time someone in the top 10 doesn’t make it. It’s very competitive at the top and sometimes even your best day isn’t enough. That’s just athletics.

There are 8 regions. Some are weaker than others, but in general top 10 in your region only means top 80 in the country. We shouldn't be trying to make sure our 80th best individual runner is accounted for. Individuals should only be going who are likely to be in the hunt for top 40 All-American, then everyone else is there for the team competition.

Actually you're response is stupid. Nothing is absurd about ratcheting up the quality of the field a little bit.

I've heard they're going to start adding more individual qualifiers for the NCAA Soccer Tournament and Basketball March Madness as well. Teams sports is such an antiquated system - it should be everyone for themselves. Who cares about putting in the teamwork to help your 4th & 5th sticks get better - just leave them in the ditch so you can get your own glory.

I am in favor of adding teams and reducing individuals. Imagine a top football player making this argument. 1/2 of the individuals don't finish top 100 which means they should really cut the number in 1/2. What does your point about beating a team's individual have to do with anything? A team can score 75 points with nobody top 10 or can score 75 with 4 top 10 and a 5th further back. The scores are the same but the random individual qualifier isn't better or worse against those two teams.

No individual qualifiers in the team race. Just have an open race for individuals without a team.

Im sure there will be naysayers for this idea as well but I wonder what the real percentage is for support of combining and leaving it as it is vs just teams only?

Same goes for Wrestling, track and field, swimming and all other team sports based on individual events/efforts right?

Except CC is One event and should have a combined team/individual race.

I think in Wrasslin, they call that a Battle Royal!

I want to see the best people in the race.

Sounds like a skill issue. Sounds like you’re mad too. Get rekt!

Imagine living in Davis, CA…it smells like cow poop, in the Central Valley, you’re in the poophole of CA, yuck!!!! You guys had a short drive to Sacramento too…compared to some teams flying and having longer travel days. Definitely a skill issue! I only didn’t make it to nationals one year out of the four, I had nobody to blame but MYSELF…I knew the rules. You crying on here about it will do nothing to change the rules…it just exposes you’re weak minded and can’t take accountability.

I’m a high schooler too btw, haven’t broken 4:45 but I’m going to act like I’m an All-American on here.

If you were able to watch the athlete in question compete in person you would realize that she should probably be under medical care and not even in uniform.
if we’re talking about cross country as a team sport, the health of multiple athletes in the UC Davis team should be the topic of conversation.

Unless your athlete is going to win the race, they have no place in the race. If you can’t even be a top 4 individual in your region you won’t win at nationals. Sure it’s great to go chase All American status but at the end of the day it’s a team sport and individuals shouldn’t matter, all they do is mess up team tactics by having nothing to lose

I agree.

This is a rare occurrence where a top 60 athlete doesn't get in. Probably not worth any changes even though she is better than all 4 qualifiers in some regions.

The fix would be to reduce the individual auto qualifiers from 4 to 3 per region and have 10 at large. Of course then you would have more complaints about the at large selections.

What region had a top qualifier worse than this person? The system already is set up to go deeper in tougher regions by taking 4 not on qualifying teams rather than a set place such as top 10.

Sounds like you’d be happier coaching NAIA with their 36 teams and 80+ individuals making the big meet.